Dreadnought III.

This is coolbert:

See my previous blog entries on the same topic here and here.

From a Russian military Internet web site copied in entirety the posting at a forum by KomissarBojanchev.

"Possibility of return of the Battleship? Empty Possibility of return of the battleship?"

"Do you think building cannon armed dreadnoughts is the answer for future warfare? Giving it an MBT [main battle tank] grade composite armor of massive thickness would make AshMs [anti-ship missiles] nearly useless against it since most have fragmentation warheads only useful against the unarmored CVs [aircraft carriers] and destroyers of today and while HEAT [high-explosive anti-tank] warheads might penetrate its armor it would only affect one compartment of the modern dreadnought and wont do much damage unless it is extremely lucky enough to hit an ammo compartment. Also giving it a respectable CIWS [close-in weapons system] will negate the threat of missiles and bombs even more. While the base range of an average 406mm [sixteen inch] projectile would be only about 40km [twenty-five miles] having using assisted shells will give it range surpassing some AshMs. If a 152mm assisted round can go 80km, a 203mm round might go around 120km [seventy-five miles] imagine how much a will a 400+mm [sixteen inch+] round go! The battleship would expend its ammo a lot slower than a missile armed ship. And if a battleships gun could do heavy damage to an armored WW2 cruiser imagine how volleys of guided 406mm [sixteen inch] shells will pulverize unarmored missile destroyers and carriers. Even so adding missiles will still be a good idea for very long range strikes (the iowas had tomahawks). A modern battleship carrying 460mm [sixteen inch] turrets (and carrying about 1000 rounds) and 16 brahmos [supersonic anti-ship missile] or klub-K [Russian anti-ship missile] missiles would be easily the most powerful ship in the sea. Of course carriers could still be useful but adding a battleship to the task force would make it a lot more powerful."

ANSWERS TO THE QUESTION AS POSED MORE OR LESS UNIFORMLY NEGATIVE.

And thank you KomissarBojanchev.

coolbert.